Basically a kitchen storage room. I assume the pan- is from Latin bread, so it probably started as bread storage. I don't have one, but my grandmother's house had a large pantry which housed flour, sugar, bread, pickles, jams and jellies, etc., as well as dishes. The dish cupboards could be opened either from the pantry or the kitchen. The pantry also offered ready access to the root cellar.

And bottler, not in the sense of somebody who puts beverages in bottles, but as in the guy with the keys to the cave who's in charge of all those bottles. OTOH, janitor, means the guy in charge of the door (or keys thereof) < Latin janua 'door, house door; entrance'.

I once made the mistake of telling my son, that the pepper grinder was in the 'compliments' cupboard instead of the condiments cupboard and now its a family joke when ever someone goes to get something out of that cupboard, to utter a string of flattering words, when the door is opened!

its a family joke when ever someone goes to get something out of that cupboard, to utter a string of flattering words, when the door is opened!

My family functions on the dark side of this. My wife, who rarely watches movies, once responded to a passing remark about Pulp Fiction in a way that made it clear that she thought we were talking about Newsies. I and our three offspring were helpless with laughter. Now the poor woman can't say anything about any movie without being hit with: "You mean Newsies?" In January I showed up at my daughter's house to stay with my infant grandson for a couple of hours, and made the mistake of announcing myself with, "Nanny Peter is here!" I'm rather afraid that the baby will learn to call me that, because his mother thinks it very clever to remind me of my ill-advised usage.

Disclaimer: Wordsmith.org is not responsible for views expressed on this site.
Use of this forum is at your own risk and liability - you agree to
hold Wordsmith.org and its associates harmless as a condition of using it.